As one of image-copying techniques, there has been known a method of performing copying by using a photosensitive material which exhibits a change in adhesive properties upon subjected to light. This technique lies on an extension of the photoengraving technique, and copying has been conventionally performed by a sequence of steps of exposing imagewise the photosensitive material to actinic radiation through an original film such as a halftone positive recorded by dot separation according to silver salt photographic technique, etc., to cause a change in tackiness in the exposed areas, and dusting with a pigment. The photosensitive material used in this technique is constructed as a photosensitive film composed of a base film transparent to the actinic radiation and a photosensitive layer tacky at room temperature. The photosensitive layer of this photosensitive film is in turn composed of a uniform composition comprising a polymerization initiator (hereinafter refered to as the "photopolymerization initiator") for photosensitized polymerization, a polymerizable or crosslinkable monomeric compound and a binder comprising a thermoplastic polymer. This photosensitive film is characteristic of exhibiting a significant change in tackiness when exposed to actinic radiation such as ultraviolet rays or the like whose energy density is several mJ/cm.sup.2 -10 mJ/cm.sup.2. This change in tackiness is due to that the photopolymerization initiator of the photosensitive layer is excited by the energy of the actinic radiation and a polymerization or crosslinking reaction of the monomer is brought about, thereby the photosensitive layer is hardened. And, for example, where imagewise exposure of the photosensitive film is performed through an original film such as a halftone positive by using a ultra-high pressure mercury lamp as actinic radiation (ultraviolet radiation) furnishing source on condition that the actinic radiation intensity at the exposed surface is 0.2 mW/cm.sup.2, the image-copying is achieved by several ten seconds exposure.
As described above, in the image-copying technique employing a photosensitive material which exhibits a change in tackiness upon subjected to light, copying is conventionally performed indirectly by employing an original film recorded by dot separation. This is because since this photosensitive material has almost no halftone reproducibility per se, it is necessary to convert the light intensity information of the original film into monochromatic area. Therefore, where this photosensitive material is to be applied to a method of recording a light image directly from a photoimage generating device such as a cathode ray tube which emanates ultraviolet rays, a fiber tube or the like, it is necessary to subject the photoimages to electrical area-converting treatment. As a result, a great loss in the amount of the actinic radiation is caused due to, e.g., attenuation by an optical system employed for image formation. Also, since the light intensity is small in these light image generating devices, an exposure time of several 10.sup.3 hours is required for image recording. Therefore, in this case, it is difficult to obtain a practical photographic speed or resolving power.